


Leave the door a little open -

by shopfront



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, First Meetings, Flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-08-29 07:55:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16740088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: - and walk on through.When the TARDIS decides to trap Bill inside, alone, the person who comes to her rescue isn't who Bill expects.





	Leave the door a little open -

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spokenitalics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spokenitalics/gifts).



“Oi!” Bill yelped as the TARDIS door slammed shut in her face, only narrowly avoiding clipping her fingers. Gaping, she banged on the inside of it loudly. “Doctor! Doctor, open the door!”

It took a few minutes of banging and calling his name, like he’d already run off ahead for a bit before realising she wasn’t at his heels. But eventually she heard his voice on the other side of the door “Bill? What are you still doing in there? Hurry up, we have things to do here and-”

The door jiggled in its frame as he tried to open it. Bill watched the shadow of his hair rise up outside, as he attempted to peer inside the tiny frosted windows. Then he shook the door again, but without success.

“How did you- Are you holding the door shut?” he asked, tone incredulous with just a hint of an imminent scolding.

“Why would I be holding the door shut?” Bill asked. The Doctor’s answering huff was clearly audible even through the door.

“Alright, alright. I was only asking,” he said. The door shook one last time, and then his voice faded slightly, as if he’d taken a bit step away. “Well, go on. Give it a good push from your side, then.”

"Oh, yes, because I didn't try that already," Bill said. But she dutifully did as she was told, unsurprised when the door still didn’t budge. Swearing under her breath, she hit the door once more, and then stalked back towards the console to cool off while the Doctor started talking a mile a minute outside.

“Just let me…,” he called as the familiar sound of his screwdriver whirring into action began to filter through the door. “No, maybe if I adjust the- No, not that either. Perhaps if- No. Bill?”

“What is it?” Bill asked, dashing back to the door despite herself.

“I’m going to have a look around. There might be something on the planet interfering with the TARDIS, so you just stay right where you are and I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll just take myself off on an island cruise while I wait,” Bill replied with a roll of her eyes. Pulling a face, she walked a few steps away and dropped down at the bottom of a flight of stairs, curling up with her arms and chin pillowed on her knees.

“Sure, why not. Have fun, don't get sunburnt, and I’ll be-”

“Back in a jiffy. I know, I know, just go already!” Bill yelled. Silence was her only reply, and she sighed. The TARDIS made a faint whirling hum of a noise, and she grimaced in response and settled in to wait.

*

The door was flung open with a bang sometime later. Bill flailed up from her recline on the steps - where she'd been half daydreaming, half dozing - overbalancing, and slipping the rest of the way down the stairs to the floor as the result.

“Give me a little warning next time, Doctor,” Bill grouched as she scrambled to her feet, rubbing her arse ruefully. Only, once she looked up, she wasn’t face to face with the Doctor like she’d expected. Instead she was face to face with a wide-eyed woman. The woman was clad in the clinging sweep of a dark red gown and discreetly attempting to slip a key on a long chain into the - very, very deep, Bill noticed with a gulp, and seemingly only just barely clinging on in all the right, or wrong, places - neckline of her dress.

By the time Bill had dragged her eyes back up, the woman's wide eyed look of surprise had been replaced with an assessing stare. Before Bill could return the look, with interest, she tucked a curl behind her ear and smiled.

“There you are,” she said loudly as she swept past Bill towards the console. Their shoulders brushed together as she passed, leaving Bill in a cloud of perfume. “Sorry about the change of face. I had a little…. accident, while I was out. Hope it's not too disconcerting for you.”

“Er, sorry?” Bill asked as she turned to follow the woman. Then she shook her head roughly to try and clear it, trying and failing to lose the lingering scent and only belatedly noticing what the woman was up to. “Hey, you can’t touch that! How did you even get in here?”

The woman smirked a little and straightened up to look Bill straight in the eye. With a quirk of her eyebrow she dragged a finger down the curve of her breast, right along the edge of her neckline until it presumably rested against the key she had tucked away there. “I most certainly can. This is my TARDIS. I even have a key,” she said, her other hand still flying across the controls.

“ _Your_ key- no, it’s not,” Bill said. She eyed the controls the woman was fiddling with for a moment, and then took a deep breath and pushed in front of her, grabbing for her moving hand in an attempt to stop her. “This is the Doctor’s TARDIS.”

“Yes. Precisely,” the woman replied, disturbingly calm even as Bill's fingers wrapping around her wrist like a vice. “Which means it’s mine,” she finished in a breathy, conspiratorial sort of a tone, smirk widening as she swayed towards Bill suggestively.

Bill’s mouth dropped open a little as she stared openly, struggling not to let her eyes linger anywhere too suggestive. Though she wasn't sure how convincing she was about not noticing the glint of metal under her neckline that was visible from just the right angle. Bill summoned her self-control, but it still took a great effort to shake her head again and push the woman back a few steps.

“You’re _not_ the Doctor,” she said firmly, spreading her arms out protectively across the console.

“Aren’t I? If you say so” the woman replied, one eyebrow still raised. But she also held her hands out in a little shrug of concession and took another step back, and then another, until she bumped into the railing. She quickly draped herself over it, looking pleased when Bill's gaze flickered briefly down again.

“I do say so,” was all Bill said in reply. She widened her stance, straightening her back as she stared the woman down.But the woman's smile only dimpled with amusement, and she continued to wordlessly stare back at Bill.

It didn’t take long for Bill to discover the urge to fidget. The silence stretched between them, and Bill could feel heat beginning to build in her cheeks. But before she could get too self-conscious, a memory niggled at her.

“Hang on, you look familiar,” Bill said slowly, dropping her arms as she narrowed her eyes. “Why do you look familiar?”

The woman stayed still and silent against the railing for a long moment. Just as Bill began to open her mouth to repeat her questions, she sprang up. “Oh, fine,” she said begrudgingly, amusement gone and expression business-like. “I’m not the Doctor. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t my TARDIS. What’s his is mine and all that claptrap. Now are you going to get out of the way so I can land her, or not?”

Bill blinked. “What’s his is- Wait, what do you mean _land her_? We never took off!”

“Oh, didn’t we? Are you sure about that?” she asked. Her lips twitched at the corners, eyes softening in amusement as Bill gaped. Then she stepped forward, crushing Bill between her body and the console.

Bill stopped breathing for a second, frozen with the edge of the control panel pressed into the small of her back. A lever was also poking into her hip, but she didn't dare move as the woman leant in close enough that their lips were almost touching. Her breath stirred the air against Bill’s mouth as her smile widened. and she breathed, “my name is River Song. Perhaps you've heard of me?”

The faint sound of buttons beeping and something being flung, clanking, into a new position, filtered through to Bill’s mind. But all she could see - hear, smell - was River.

Then River spun away from Bill just as quickly as she'd lurched forward. She reached for the TARDIS viewscreen and released a deeply satisfied sigh as she examined the screen.

“Ah, yes, here we are. Safely landed,” she declared.

“Safely what?” Bill asked in disbelief, reaching past her to grab the viewscreen for herself. “You’re lying. This is some sort of trick. There was no… no sound, no nothing. I bet we’re in exactly the same place as before,” she said accusingly. The TARDIS makes a faint whirling hum again, which Bill took as agreement. Maybe. Where was the Doctor to translate when she needed him, anyway?

But River was already slipped past Bill, shrugging as she headed for the door. Bill jumped, startled, as she passed and her hand caught and lingered on Bill’s arm. She squeezed Bill gently before releasing her, and Bill didn't know whether to be outraged or turned on. There was plenty of room for both of them on the walkway without touching, after all.

Before she could decide how to react, however, River was at the door, which swung obligingly open.

"You have got to be kidding me," Bill muttered. Not willing to risk the opportunity passing by, Bill chased after River and caught the door before it could swing shut. The TARDIS clanged behind her, but Bill ignored it.

Outside, River was twirling in the sunlight, her skirt flaring around her. Bill’s breath caught at a glimpse of skin and long shapely legs, before she wrenched her eyes back up.

“Well?” River asked as she came to a stop. She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun, eyes searching out Bill's. “Are you coming, or not?”

Bill gaped. “I didn’t see outside last time, so this could still be the same place the Doctor landed,” she pointed out, trying to buy time.

“All the more reason to come with me, then,” River replied brightly, which only made Bill's incredulity deepen.

“No, all the more reason to wait right here for him to come back,” Bill replied smartly. With the door wedged open this time, of course, went unsaid.

“What if I’m right, though?” River asked. She spun on her heel and started to saunter away without an answer, turning her head to continue speaking airily over her shoulder. “You might be stuck on an entirely different alien planet, and I’m the only one who can fly you back. You might just have to trust me.”

When Bill didn't budge from the doorway, River stopped and turned back properly. Placing one hand on her hip, she frowned.

“Look, we can wait here for a bit to make sure he’s not coming back if you want. I’m not in any rush," she said with a huff. "Or, the sooner you come with me, the sooner I’ll be ready to fly her - and you - back to him. It’s up to you. But I could use a hand, and I promise it'll be fun.”

Her hand raised to linger on the key again, still tucked inside her dress. Bill licked her lips.

It probably wasn’t wise. She really didn’t know anything about River Song. Couldn’t even place yet where she’d seen River’s face. But she did have a TARDIS key….

Behind her, the TARDIS let out a melodic, lilting warble, and Bill rolled her eyes. “Alright, alright,” she muttered and stepped the rest of the way through the doorway into the sunshine. The door audibly swung shut behind her, and she resisted the urge to try the handle. She was pretty sure she knew what would happen, anyway.

River beamed at her, clapping her hands together. “Excellent. Shall we?” she asked, tilting her head in the direction she’d been walking a moment ago.

“Yeah, alright. Why not,” Bill replied as she stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans and strode across the few feet between them. Once she was close enough, River slipped her arm through Bill’s elbow and leant in close as if to whisper in her ear.

“You won’t regret it,” River said with confidence, not whispering at all. Watching her from the corner of her eye, Bill saw River’s eyes soften and her lips start to turn up at both corners - more genuine this time, without the lingering hint of a smirk - and thought to herself that River might be right. Maybe she wouldn’t.


End file.
